181–190 of 371 posts
Maybe the Apple cut is too high, but I don't think it's unreasonable for them to take some cut. They are providing the distribution platform to get your app to millions of users, it's not free for them to provide that service. They have their own server, bandwidth and employee costs too.
Epic is conveying that the 30% cut on App Store was raising the prices. But Xbox and PlayStation has the same cut, yet Epic has lower pricing on these platforms.
> PERMANENT DISCOUNTS That's a bold promise if Apple shuts the practice down. Will need to go back on the promised permanency or take the loss.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And they've done far more for gaming over the past decade than Valve, which hasn't been able to successfully innovate in the last two Uhm, what? Epic has delivered Unreal Engine 4 – good for them. They've also released a successful battle royale, piggybacking off of other developers' success and rolled out a crappy store/launcher, a straight downgrade from every single competitor, that they actively force on people…
I mean we can debate this until the cows come home, but Unreal is much more significant to the development of new gaming (and recently, other) content than anything Valve has ever done. Valve is a middleman, Epic creates values. For example, there's no VR for them to "push" without companies like Epic giving out engines to develop VR content for free. Personally this statement: > a straight downgrade from every singl…
That's part of my point – EGS (and Steam, arguably) does nothing that you actually need for gaming itself. It may have some extra features, but that's not the core idea. We've been buying and launching games forever without them.
Now they're forced upon us however, and it's worth looking into what kind of value they give us. When I buy a game on Steam I can refund it if I don't like it, I can share it with my family when I'm not playing (not as good as a DRM-free copy, but closer than others still), play it on Linux even if it's unsupported, play it remotely from a weaker computer or a phone.
EGS in comparison provides me with a negative value. Not only it doesn't provide anything worth paying for (it's 2020 and "it's a downloader" is not really a selling point anymore), it's actually a negative value imo – were I to pirate the game I'd at least not have to install any additional crapware on my computer and open yet another account which will probably hoard my personal data forever.
I'm not saying Steam has the best client as a software – yes, it absolutely sucks. Galaxy or itch.io (and possibly EGS) have built far better working software – but it's still the software I don't need. With Steam the extras are at least compelling enough to justify using it over the alternatives. You do actually get more from it than you do from piratebay – something I can't say about EGS.
> Valve is a middleman, Epic creates values
I'd put it differently – Valve innovates, while Epic iterates. Epic built another engine. Another successful BR game. They're forcing yet another launcher. Their only positive impact on gaming is their engine – making them the "middleman" you mentioned. I'm excited for VR, and what HL:Alyx will inspire people to create. I'm not excited for yet another game on Texture Popping Engine 4.
Isn't the cut 70% for inapp purchases? I'm all for this, but there seems to be a 10% gap?
Right, the implication to me is that Epic believes a 10% fee is reasonable since they say on their website they'll lower prices if Apple lowers its fees. So if Apple reduced fees to 10%, the price to pay with Apple would be the same as it is through Epic direct pay. In other words, Epic doesn't expect a 0% fee.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You seem to be moving the goalposts here. > Epic has no "walled garden". Epic is explicitly a walled garden regarding the games it has paid to be exclusive within that walled gardren (Permanently or temporarily). > The PC is an open platform. An iPhone is not. You are conflating hardware / software here. PC hardware is an open platform. The software is running on it is not necessarily. You could be running Linux or W…
> Epic is explicitly a walled garden regarding the games it has paid to be exclusive That's not what walled garden means. PC game developers can sell their games any number of ways - if they choose one way instead of others that's up to them. For iOS there's no choice - either you sell through Apple or you don't support iOS. Hence "walled garden". In short: if you have to pay people to come into your garden, it's not…
For a developer I agree with you, it is not a walled garden, they can sell games however they want, epic is one option who happen to be the only one that pays, out of all the stores, 3rd parties for exclusivity.
For a customer it is a walled garden for those exclusive games in that I cannot play those games without having to install and sign-up for the Epic Games Store because they paid to make them exclusive (again, permanently or temporarily).
>Does a new payment method on mobile mean purchases there are less safe? >No. Thousands of apps on the App Store approved by Apple accept direct payments, including commonly used apps like Amazon, Grubhub, Nike SNKRS, Best Buy, DoorDash, Fandango, McDonalds, Uber, Lyft, and StubHub. We think all developers should be free to support direct payments in all apps. [0] All of these services provide something physical. You…
> Does this mean Epic will start allowing users of the Epic Games Store on PC to directly pay game developers and bypass the EGS cut? If you follow Tim Sweeney and Epic's history surrounding "app store cuts", you'd know that they've always stood on the side of developers. The EGS stands among the lowest app store cuts of any marketplace, at 12%, and Tim has become visibly angry during public appearances concerning Ap…
Lmfao at claiming that much moral superiority over a 2xish difference. I’m sure hes become visibly angry, John Legere was a character too, it’s a show.
I love how they are "passing the savings down to us" from a non existing digital item that they set the price of. Ugh. Anyway, this should be absolutely fascinating to watch how the antitrust cases against the app stores go!
My money is on Apple cracking down hard on this. It looks clearly as if Epic remotely activated this direct payment option, thereby bypassing Apple's App Review. Apple will not take kindly to this. Best case scenario for Epic (and Fortnite players): they invite Sweeney in for some hard negotiations. Worst case: Fortnite ends up getting removed from iOS for this.
Pull it is exactly what I would do. Apple gets a cut of the paid apps, but $0 from free apps who show ads. Take away getting a cut from the paid apps then free apps suddenly cost the developers money—no more free apps. Imagine going to Walmart and telling them what you want them to give you all the revenue. Walmart will tell you exactly what they want to pay you, or you can leave. Maybe 30% is too much, but 0% is a t…
Your Walmart analogy would make more sense if Walmart sold tickets for admission. For example, Costco, a store that does in fact sell memberships, does buy and resell some products for no margin or even at a loss in order to cultivate a variety of goods to incentivize people to maintain a membership.
My guess is that this is a gambit to force Apple’s hand during a time when there is the most intense antitrust pressure over the App Store since it’s launch. If Apple cracks down then it’s just more fuel for the antitrust fire, and potentially evidence in court. If they allow it then it’s precedent that others can use to employ the same tactic. Either way it seems to me Epic is taking a calculated risk to induce chan…
I love it when big companies play abstract strategic games with each other like this. Competition at its finest.